There are a number of different possible careers. Here are just a few that come to mind:

1. Work as a tea blender for a tea company.2. Work as a tea taster for a tea company.3. Educator or a consultant for the tea trade.4. Be a tea merchant or tea trader.5. Be a tea writer. 6. Flavor Chemist (use chemicals to help create tea blends)7. Tea Sommelier

1. Professor/teacher of tea agriculture/tea chemistry/tea nutrition at state university.

2. "Tea Girl" - a beautiful young women who brews tea on stage during tea presentations/tea conventions etc. Similar to "car expo girls", but involves more education because they don't need to just stand and smile, but also brew tea according to "traditional ceremony".

3. Master of tea ceremony at a tea house or a restaurant - not the same as "tea master", those people are particularly skilled in processing tea ceremony, they might know nothing/little about tea growing for example or tea trade.

4. Technologist of tea production - the most important person at a tea factory because it is impossible to produce some teas according to written down charts and machinery-based dimensions.

Old joke about viticulture:Q: How do you make a small fortune growing wine?A: Start with a large one.

IMHO, not much you can do as an Anglo American. Being a true believer in tea will help you to sell tea, but if you don't have a sales temperament it won't be enough, and people may not be interested in buying the tea you believe in selling. Nowadays the big players in retail, wholesale, and foodservice don't leave much space; the general market is way behind you in its tastes, and the margins would be slim in any case. You can join up with some of the big players, but know that they are looking for people with real expertise (marketing, hard sciences, IT) and they are constantly turning away rafts of untrained tea enthusiasts. It seems necessary to have some unrelated income stream, so you can subsidize trips to tea producing regions. One gambit that has led to success for some people is teaching English in China (or some other tea producing region). This is not as foolproof as it was, as these countries' supply of English teachers and cost/standard of living is increasing all the time, and while you still have to learn the language and the business culture, it is increasingly easy for their native businesses to connect with American markets.

I recommend cultivating any area of expertise that's in general demand, and trying later to parlay that into the tea world. Really, I think a doctor has a better chance to start a viable career in tea (if they want one) than an unskilled tea enthusiast like myself. And remember that our culture's outsized emphasis on career fulfillment obscures the fact that a life with tea will always be accesible to you, no matter what you do for a living.

Sounds like you are trying to figure out how to live your passion for tea...? Just go for it - take the first step. I recently quit a 25-year unfulfilling corporate career to devote myself to tea. I am fumbling around with what that looks like but I've taken the first step and life just turned amazing!